Help me close the gender investment gap!

Gender gaps exist even in the finance world, no wonder why women are behind when it comes to money and financial security.

I want to help change this and you can also play a part - whether this newsletter is for you or maybe you can pass this onto someone you know and care about.

Gender investment gap

According to Boring Money 2024 report, UK investment gap rose to £567 billion in the last year, with men having a total of £1.01 trillion and women £450 billion invested (excluding workplace pensions). These figures are pretty stark, but not surprising.

The investment gap has widened even more due to young men getting into investing early, some of it is due to the rise of crypto investing which women see as a big risk (for a good reason actually).

On the other side, various research demonstrates that women can often be better investors than men when they do invest, so clearly we need more of us investing!

Why we don’t invest

There are several reasons why women are less likely to invest including:

• lower average income and less money to invest

• lack of financial knowledge and confidence

• women perceive investing more technical

• less risk tolerant

The main reason why I didn’t invest sooner is that I was simply not aware of the type of investing I do now (index funds) and how this can help build wealth long term. I have obviously heard of the stock market, but didn’t think it was for me 🤷‍♀️.

The book that got me seriously interested in investing had the sort of title I would not find appealing as all (‘I will teach you to be rich’). Perhaps we need to be educated differently about investing?

Have you also felt that you couldn’t relate to the heavily male dominated investing advice on the internet? To help you with this, I have put together a list of my favourite resources by women at the end of the newsletter 👇.

The importance of investing for women

Despite women being more risk averse, not investing can be a huge risk in itself. We may end up with insufficient retirement funds and our money saved can lose value over the long term due to inflation if not invested.

When I talk to friends and people I know about investing, its no surprise that most women say they don’t invest and usually leave the majority of money management to their partners. This is all well when they’re there, but what happens when they’re not?

Another strong argument for women to invest is that on average we will live longer than men and will need more money to fund our retirement. Life expectancy for millennial women in the UK could be up to 3-4 years longer compared to men, so we will need to fund an extra few years 👵.

It’s important for women to be empowered and be confident in managing money no matter what situation we’re in.

Let’s get investing!

Investing resources by women 📚

My weekly recommendation

Great video from Making Money podcast looking into whether our parents generation have had it easier than us. What do you think?

Until next time ✌️

Lina at Money Blues